For the 8th time in its 36 year history, the Andover girls ascended to the highest peak in New England Swimming & Diving.

Having lost only to Exeter during the dual meet season, the Big Blue was positioned to be a real contender for the top crown. But the Big Red posted some amazing times in the seedings and the Big Blue needed to have a HOT day in order to rise about the red. And hot they were.

In the 200 Medley Relay, the A team of Teri Faller ’11, Salena Casha ’09, Annie Glancy ’09 and Alanna Waldman ’10 took third with a time of 1:51.21. In the B relays: Kerry Lanzo ’11, Tina Kit ’09, Hannah McGrath ’11 and Steph Moroney ’09 came in 5th with a time of 2:04.06.

Diving brought big points with Kendall MacRae ’11 in second with a score of 387.25, Emily Johnson ’10 in 5th place with 346.95 points and Whitney Glick ’11 in 16th place with 247.80 points.

Going into the 100 fly, The Big Blue: 153. The Red: 112 – up by 41!

In the 100 fly, we took a bit of a hit with only Glancy in 5th (1:00.87) and Greta Martin ’09 in 14th with 1:03.14. Azaret took 27th with 1:06.22 and McGrath took 33rd with 1:07.44.

In the 100 free, we came back a bit with Morss in 7th (55.03), L. Moroney in 15th (56.18) and Waldman in 16th (56.19). Kristofferson finished 23rd (57.28).

After the 100 free, Andover was only up by 9 points!

In the 500, big time drops brought big points. Hall came in second with a 5:09.46; Faulkner in 6th with 5:14.33; Molly Levene in 13th with 5:25.27; Abby Levene ’09 in 23rd with 5:38.16.

The 200 Free Relay brought one of the biggest boosts of the night – a first place finish! Lexi Moroney, Molly Levene, Waldman and Morss went 1:41.25 to bring home 40 huge points for the Big Blue. Second and third places were 1:41.61 and 1:41.65 respectively! The B relay finished 3rd – Julianna Reider ‘10, Abby Levene, Aubrey Zimmerling ’09 and Emily Timm ’11 went 1:47.63.

After the relay, Andover had a solid lead of 259 to 233.5. Up by almost 27.

The 100 back set us BACK a bit against the Big Red backstrokers. Teri Faller went 1:01.70 for 4th , Torabi went 1:02.86 for 7th and Eva Simitch Warke ’09 placed 12th with 1:04.06. Veronica Faller ’09 was the first alternate at 17th place with a time of 1:04.54.

At this time, Andover was only 4 points ahead of Exeter!

The breaststroke event gave a glimmer of light with Casha in 5th with 1:08.66 and Hall in 6th with 1:10.05. Emily Timm was 17th with 1:12.60 and Zimmerling was 21st with 1:13.82.

Andover was now 15 points ahead of Exeter. If Exeter won the relay, the Andover team had to place 6th or better to win the meet!

4th place was the charm today! The team of Teri Faller, Faulkner, Casha and Morss went 3:39.83 to seal the deal.